NVIDIA, renowned for its cutting-edge graphics and AI technology, has revealed an innovative solution called Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE) that aims to revolutionize gaming interactions. During the generative AI keynote at Computex 2023, the company showcased a demo named Kairos, which showcased the potential of ACE by allowing gamers to engage in natural conversations with non-playable characters (NPCs) and receive contextually appropriate responses.
The demo presented a playable character conversing with an NPC named Jin in a dystopian-themed Ramen shop. In the demo, the player initiated the conversation by asking, “Hey Jin, how are you?” Jin responded, “Unfortunately, not so good,” expressing concern about the increasing crime in the area and how the ramen shop had suffered as a result.
While the dialogue in the demo may have felt somewhat scripted and lacking natural flow, the purpose was to illustrate the concept of using voice input to interact with NPCs and receive relevant responses, thus enhancing the overall gaming experience.
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NVIDIA collaborated with Convai to develop the demo and showcase the capabilities of ACE. The technology can be deployed both in the cloud and locally, utilizing NVIDIA hardware. ACE leverages NVIDIA NeMo to construct, customize, and deploy large language models that can be tailored with specific lore and character backstories. The system incorporates guardrails to ensure appropriate conversations and utilizes Riva, a speech recognition and speech-to-text tool, along with NVIDIA’s Omniverse Audio2Face, which creates dynamic facial animations for game characters to match speech tracks seamlessly.
The Kairos demo was built on Unreal Engine 5, highlighting NVIDIA’s advanced ray-tracing capabilities and other GPU features. While the visuals of the demo were visually captivating, it was evident that the dialogue generated by the AI system could be significantly improved. NVIDIA has not yet announced specific games that will incorporate ACE, but it revealed that Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl and Fort Solis will employ Omniverse Audio2Face.
The introduction of ACE marks an exciting advancement in gaming technology, promising a more immersive and interactive gaming experience. By enabling natural conversations with NPCs, ACE has the potential to enhance storytelling, character development, and overall gameplay. While the demo showcased the initial capabilities of ACE, there is considerable room for improvement to achieve more realistic and dynamic dialogue exchanges in future game titles.
NVIDIA’s ongoing commitment to pushing the boundaries of AI and graphics technology continues to shape the gaming landscape, and ACE represents another significant step towards creating truly immersive virtual worlds. Gamers can anticipate the integration of ACE in upcoming titles, offering them the opportunity to engage with game characters in a more lifelike and engaging manner than ever before.
